Anti-tour group disbanded

Press, 2 November 1981, Page 6

Anti-tour group disbanded

PA Wellington The anti-tour organisation, Coalition Opposed to the Springbok Tour, was officially disbanded at a meeting in Wellington at the week-end.

It will be replaced by two groups directing attention on domestic racism in New Zealand and to the anti-apart-heid struggle in South Africa, said a spokesman, Mr Geoffrey Walker, yesterday. He said there was a strong feeling among the 300 people attending the meeting that attention should now be directed towards racism in New Zealand:

The meeting had also decided that “support for the fight against apartheid must continue.”

Mr Walker said a new Wellington-based group had been established to fight domestic racism in New Zealand. A steering committee

of 29 was to organise a big meeting on Waitangi Day next year to set up a structure and policy for the group, which is not yet named. The meeting also decided that the anti-apartheid group, HART, should again accept responsibility for conducting the anti-apartheid movement in Wellington. Mr Walker said that although C.O.S.T. was disbanding, the group’s legal defence committee would continue the work of supporting those arrested during the tour. A fund-raising drive to cover court costs was planned.

“It was never intended that C.O.S.T. would continue to exist after the tour,” Mr Walker said. “It was formed in June as a broadly-based umbrella group for the specific purpose of organising anti-tour activities in Wellington. With the tour over,

C.O.S.T. supporters now feel that the organisation can disband.”. The Christchurch-based Coalition Against the Tour disbanded several weeks ago, said a spokesperson yesterday for the group, Mrs Mary Baker.

Mrs Baker said that a conference of C.A.T. had decided that the role of the coalition had been to oppose the tour and so no longer needed to exist. Responsibility for conducting the antiapartheid movement would be handed back to HART. However, a legal fund for protesters arrested during the tour demonstrations was still being handled by C.A.T., said Mrs Baker.

No plans existed for joining the new group in Wellington because both organisations had been completely separate during the tour, she said.